A restaurant inside a shopping mall in Varanasi was raided late Friday night by a joint team of the excise department and police for serving liquor without a valid licence. During the raid, officials seized 20 cans of beer and one bottle of whiskey.
The restaurant manager, Abdullah Khan of Jaunpur, and a staff member, Shailesh Kumar Dubey of Mirzapur, were arrested on the spot.
DCP Varuna Zone Pramod Kumar said the action was part of an ongoing crackdown on the illegal sale, storage, and transportation of alcohol and narcotics. Acting on a tip-off, the joint team carried out the raid around 11 pm and confirmed that liquor was being served illegally.
Both accused were handed over to Cantt police, and an FIR was filed under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 60 of the UP Excise Act, and Section 10 of the UP Restaurant (Liquor Consumption) Rules, 1952.
